Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Time to Quit Smoking!

MANCHESTER, N.H. — A New Hampshire man says he swiped his debit card ata gas station to buy a pack of cigarettes and was charged over 23 quadrillion dollars.

Josh Muszynski checked his account online a few hours later and saw the 17-digit number — a stunning $23,148,855,308,184,500 (twenty-three quadrillion, one hundred forty-eight trillion, eight hundred fifty-five billion, three hundred eight million, one hundred eighty-four thousand, five hundred dollars).

Muszynski says he spent two hours on the phone with Bank of America trying to sort out the string of numbers and the $15 overdraft fee.

The bank corrected the error the next day.

Bank of America tells WMUR-TV only the card issuer, Visa, could answer questions. Visa, in turn, referred questions to the bank.

I bought my first cigarettes when I was 14 years old. They cost me 19 cents a pack. I bought a pack of Camels yesterday. It cost me $6.21. Between NObama, the biggest taxer and spender President we ever had, and Governor Lynch, the biggest taxer and spender Governor New Hampshire ever had, they are taxing us smokers to death!

When I saw the above article, I just had to assume that our esteemed Democrap politicians had really gone and done it this time. I do believe that if they thought they could get a way with it, they would try, maybe not to that extreme, but I'm sure they would love to see at least a doubling of the price. ASSHOLES!! They want to take my cigarettes, my booze, AND my guns away from me. ASSHOLES!!

Here's the link to the article. You might get a kick out of the responses people left.

Update July 17! Here's an update article with a little explanation and apology (sort of) from Visa.

MANCHESTER, N.H. -- Visa said Wednesday that a "temporaryprogramming error" caused to a Manchester man and thousands of others across thecountry to be charged quadrillions of dollars for small purchases.

JoshMuszynski just wanted to buy a pack of cigarettes at a Mobil gas station, so hewas shocked to see a charge on his bank statement of more than $23 quadrillion.

"I thought my card had been compromised," Muszynski said. "I thoughtsomebody had bought Europe with my credit card. It was very concerning."

Because Muszynski didn't have that much in his account -- no one does,as it's hundreds of times the gross domestic product of the world -- he was evencharged an overdraft fee. The charge and fee have since been removed, butMuszynski took evidence of the astronomical number to the manager of the Mobil.

"The gentleman it happened to came in with his laptop and showed me thatnumber, and I couldn't believe it," said manager Debbie Rodriguez.

Rodriguez said she sells cigarettes for only $5 and change.

Customer Mike Johnson was so stunned when Muszynski showed the amountthat he paid for his gas and then forgot to actually pump it. He returned soonafter.

The amount is difficult for people to grasp. It's more than2,000 times bigger than the national debt. For $23 quadrillion, someone couldbuy the Mobil station 33 billion times. If it's sports and entertainment you'reafter, you could buy 420 million Verizon Wireless Arenas.

And if yourdream is to buy every building in the city of Manchester, you could do it 2million times for that amount of cash.

Muszynski said if he had thatmuch cash, he'd start by bailing out General Motors.

Although Muszynskioriginally described the affected card as a debit card, Visa said debit cardsweren't affected. He was technically using a cash pay card, which was affectedby the glitch, along with prepaid cards.

Visa said the incident willhave no financial impact on cardholders' finances or credit. The company said itregretted the inconvenience to customers and has taken steps to ensure itdoesn't happen again. It also noted that the Mobil gas station isn't responsiblein any way for the error.

Once i went to pay for a parking ticket and the machine that read my ticket said that the bill was 6000 dollars or something. Good thing i was sitting in the car at the time, otherwise i would have fallen down.

Soon, you will have no cigarettes, alcohol, or guns. Your children will have no knowledge as to what those things even are (were), much like the children of today have no knowledge as to what the terms FREEDOM, JUSTICE, LIBERTY, CIVIL RIGHTS, or THE CONSTITUTION mean.

You will weigh exactly what you should per the BMI calculator. You will have no salt, caffeine, or refined sugars. You will eat your meals according to the food pyramid - no more and no less.

You will watch only approved programming on TV, listen to only approved programming on the radio.

You will walk or bicycle to your job (unless you are a welfarian, in which case you are exempt from working, but the state will still buy your bike for you).

You will consume what you are told, when you are told, and how much you are told - including handfuls of psychotropic medications to keep you docile and compliant.

When you expire or are deemed no longer useful, your own body will be consumed - for the good of society.

You want to see the future? George Lucas nailed it on the head once. Watch THX-1138 (better yet, read Ben Bova's written version).

What an excellent post Angie! Every day it's something different. One day it's smoking and the next day you'll read the umpteenth study of how a majority of us fall into the obese category. Bunch of health Nazis if you ask me. Worked with an Albanian guy once in a fence company and he only smoked completely natural Albanian cigarettes with none of those harmful chemicals but I guess those are bad for you too. He was a funny guy though, one day someone accidentally farted and he said "God bless you" (maybe in Albania that's the custom).

Truth, I haven't been able to sleep for weeks now. Thanks for dropping by so I can get caught up on the forty winks.

Jenn, it seems as though this happened to quite a few people. I wonder if any of them ended up with a heart attack.

Mr. Pink Eyes, Lynch and his fellow dems are going nutso! Did you hear they increased the rooms and meals tax and started a new tax on---hang onto your seat---flea markets and yard sales. I haven't seen this first hand yet, but I got it from a pretty good source.

Angie Lee, you nailed it, NObama is a "Control Freak", absolutely no question about it. As for what is in our future under him, the population should be afraid, VERY AFRAID!!

Z-Man, that's the way the politicians used to kill stuff, cigarettes then booze then what ever is next. This fucking asshole is doing it all at once, and for good reason, he KNOWS he is a one-termer and he KNOWS he loses either the House or the Senate, or maybe even both next year. That is why the full-court press to get it all done now!

Brooke, of course we exagerate, but maybe not so much.

Shoprat, thank you for being reasonable about it. Many non and ex smokers are not so considerate.

Z, lucky you for being able to quit so easily. I hate when politicians try to regulate and price me into being subservient to their wishes. Assholes, every one of them!

Beth, thanks so much for caring. I'm down to under 1/2 pack per day, have been for months now, mostly because of the price.

Z-Man, Chianobama?? I'll have to check that out. I would think somebody would have come out with dart boards and targets in the messiah's likeness by now also.

Tapline, the cigs might be free for all I know but the TAX, now that's another story!

Ray, As pissed off as I am about our Governor and state pols, I can't even imagine how it must be for you in Illinois and other people in some of the worst run states. I don't even know where to start when it comes to how bad the feds have become. Where in Hell has common sense gone that the American people voted in that halfrican prick? I have seen enough "buyers remorse" to know that he has no chance of fairly winning a second term, but who knows what the morons at ACORN have planned. They are trying to get the illegals legal in time for the 2012 elections, that is very evident. If that happens, I expect to see a revolution. I believe that would be the last straw. God help us all.

"measure" people's health-related behavior on the community level, including whether they are gaining or losing weight, eating the right foods, getting exercise, using tobacco, or engaging in other personal behaviors targeted for federal monitoring by the secretary of health and human services.

Leftwinger, I could still sue, but I wouldn't. I'm the one that lit every one of them, and smoked them. No one held a gun to my head.

Angel, better now that I got my hug for the day!

Beth, I can still remember promising myself "when they hit $1.00 a pack, I'M ALL DONE SMOKING!! Yeah, right!

Angie, I guess I'm in big trouble. I'm gaining weight, I LOVE junk food, I HATE excercise, and I still smoke. I am also a hunter and you can find me at the bar almost every night. Not that I drink a lot, usually only two or three a night. Changing all those habits would surely kill me.

Smoking is one of the powerful addictions, which can lead to death. Small percentage of reduction in smoking is beneficial for the health. Even with the well-known heart, blood pressure, and cancer risks can be avoid by quitting smoking as early as possible. Many smokers try to quit smoking but they are so much addicted to it they fails to quit smoking.